It’s true and I am not ashamed. I know that’s technically the least masculine blog title I have ever used, but I am comfortable with it.
I took my son to see Inside Out this past summer when it first came out, then we watched it as a family this weekend now that it’s out at Redbox.
Granted, I’ve only seen it twice so far, but I am confident that I will never be able to keep dry eyes for any future viewings of it. Still, I can legitimately proclaim that I cry every time I watch Inside Out.
Just to be clear, if you were sitting next to me while watching Inside Out, you wouldn’t know I was crying.
You wouldn’t hear anything about of me.
But if you simply turned to me to look me in the eyes, you would see tears running down both sides of my face.
Yes, it’s suppressed crying, but it’s still crying.
Sunday night after the movie ended, my wife, my son, and I all looked at each other’s wet cheeks, then laughed at the fact we all just saw proof of each other crying.
It’s not that Inside Out is a sad movie, because I don’t believe that it is.
Instead, with it being a movie about emotional intelligence, Inside Out undeniably reveals the love that involved parents have for their children.
The movie provides an enlightening experience as it reminds us that the emotion of sadness is necessary and vital; especially as it strengthens family relationships.
I might just have to proclaim that Inside Out is officially my favorite Disney movie, ever. It appears the general public agrees, as the movie has earned an impressive 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
And it has been nominated for an Oscar for best animated feature film.
It’s one of the few Disney movies to not adhere to the stereotype that the protagonist’s parents are dead. Instead, her parents are alive and well, and are actually good people.
Compare them to Elsa and Anna’s parents, in Frozen, who instead of confronting the issue that one of their daughters had a special power that makes her different, they basically locked up both of their daughters and kept them from interacting with each other. And if that psychological drama wasn’t enough, then the parents had to die, like almost every other Disney protagonist’s parents.
Of course, there is a very legitimate theory that Riley, the protagonist of Inside Out, is adopted.
But whether she is or is not adopted, that doesn’t change the fact that the movie does a wonderful job of expressing from the inside out what it’s like to be a parent and a kid who is part of a loving family.
And again, it’s also a fact that I’ll cry every time I watch this movie.